Interview: Leo Woodall on His Favorite Year in ‘One Day,’ Unpacking Dexter and Working with Ambika Mod

Press can surely provide actors and other creatives with hours, even days, worth of interviews and other promotion for their shows, especially in the midst of television awards season. Perhaps looked over is preparation for their Zoom meetings with journalists, specifically how often they hear the robotic voice come over to announce, “recording in progress.” This is a phrase that generates an immediate laugh from Leo Woodall when he hears it as I start recording a chat we had recently. “That voice,” he exclaims when he hears it. 

We joke about the voice’s curt announcement of recording before diving into his work on Netflix’s recent limited series One Day, where he co-leads with Ambika Mod to create a time capsule of a relationship close to two decades. Most of the episodes center around a specific year, all revolving around one specific date. The look into Dexter and Emma’s lives with and without one another can be sweet, hilarious, or even devastating. It’s a series that works because of its two lead performances. Woodall manages to bring confidence, close to arrogance without it being cruel or narcissistic, a clear understanding of how Dexter maneuvers through his personal life. Audiences that might have recognized Woodall from his supporting role in the second season of The White Lotus will be thrilled to see him again, however different the role is.

I spoke to Woodall about Dexter’s emotional defenses, getting into scenes with Ambika Mod, and what it feels like to go from performer to spectator after the completion of a project. 

Tyler Doster: Do you think your affinity for romantic comedies played any part in your interest in this role?

Leo Woodall: It’s a good question. I don’t know. I don’t know, maybe. I definitely didn’t, and still don’t, think of One Day as a romantic comedy, and I think people that have finished it didn’t feel that way either. No, I saw it more as just a story about two people growing up, and how they kind of grew up together, and how their similarities bring them together, and how their differences tear them apart. It’s a unique story and it’s like a real life story in a lot of ways, and I think that’s what drew me into it.

TD: It is! It’s intimately romantic in a voyeuristic way of getting to watch these two people across their lives. Do you think that Dexter’s charm is a way he uses to ward off emotionally invasive questions, or anything that could possibly create tension for him?

LW: I wish I could say that. I don’t know. I feel like early on, the first few years of his story after you’ve met him, he uses charm as more of a mechanism to find connection, and to find escalation in his career and relationships. I think questions that require him to go deep into his emotions… I think maybe you’re right, actually. [laughs] Yeah, now that I think about it. Damn, I wish I knew that two years ago when I played it. No, I think he will use it as a defense mechanism sometimes, but a lot of the time for other reasons.

TD: Do you think that has any bearing on his interest in Emma, as she cuts right through that charm and sees him mostly for who he is?

LW: 100%. 100%. I think she sees him for who he is a lot more than other people do, and I think he’s got a reputation from the get-go of being in quotations, “Dexter Mayhew” and he has fun with it, but I think he’s also fairly lonely, and her being able to see him for who he is, aside from his reputation, and his charm, his privilege, his looks, all the stuff. I think she takes the piss out of him and I think he loves that, so that’s an instant intrigue that he has for her.

TD: She does, and I think that’s something that probably mostly everyone is really looking for. Do you have a favorite year in the timeline of Dexter and Emma? 

LW: I’d say my favorite year for their story is probably 2000, 2001. It’s where they’ve got together and where they have a couple of years of just being happy, and living their normal lives, and he doesn’t care any more about what people think of him as a failed celebrity or a failed guy. He’s got a lot stronger within himself and the two of them are very happy. But sadly, it’s only 10 minutes worth or 15 minutes worth of an episode, so it’s actually not the happiest time.

TD: Yeah, it doesn’t last. The happiness doesn’t last.

LW: No, it doesn’t last that long. [laughs] Yeah. Sorry.

TD: Was there a bit of relief in those moments of contentment?

LW: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely relieved, definitely more relaxation. Me and Ambo had a lot of fun playing the early stuff, like Primrose Hill. It’s hard to pick a favorite year to be honest, but I’m going to stick with that one.

TD: What was the shooting schedule like in that? 

LW: The final episodes, we did it in blocks with four different directors. Our first director, Molly Manners, did one, two, three, and then the final episodes, so we shot all of that towards the beginning of the shoot.

I mean, we shot a lot of it out of whack, which I think can be kind of hard, but it can also take you out of your head a bit. I’ve never shot anything completely chronologically, but part of me wonders if I did, that I would be thinking too much about the arc of a character too much, and trying to fine tune the arc, as opposed to just living in the moments that you’re supposed to live in on the day.

TD: Even after this first little bit, did you already have that familiarity with Ambika that helped craft the rest of the story and all those scenes together, even scenes that were a little bit more agitating towards her character, towards Emma? I’m thinking specifically in dinner scenes where Dexter starts getting on her nerves, did your familiarity with one another aid you in creating those moments?

LW: 100%, yeah. It just created a safety. We became friends straight away, pretty much. It seems like that you need to feel not just safe with each other, but we wanted to look after each other in those moments, and check in. Particularly when it gets to the scene at the end of that episode when they’re in the alleyway and we’re just screaming at each other. You can check in with each other and it doesn’t take you out of it because we knew our characters, we knew what we were doing, and we had the guidance of a director, and so I think our friendship helped a whole bunch with everything that we shot.

TD: Did you have any particular frustrations with Dexter while portraying him?

LW: I mean, yeah. They say don’t ever judge your character, always be on their side. Sometimes that’s hard, though, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing as long as it didn’t stop me from portraying it. I found it frustrating when he was obviously being such a dick to Emma in episode seven, but when he is being so unconsciously unkind to his mum in episode five, and unhelpful, and unconscious of what his dad was also going through. Those were probably the moments where I really felt like if only he could just check in with himself a little bit in this moment. “You don’t really think that” because if he does, then you have less of a story.

[Those moments] can be frustrating, but you have to find the reasons why he’s doing what he’s doing. At the end of the day, that’s just your job to do, and you have to stop thinking about him as a mate, that he’s yours and you have to tell his story.

TD: You’ve said that you weren’t really familiar with the novel before shooting, but you did make time to watch the film adaptation. Did the gut punch of the ending change for you after going from spectator to being part of telling the story?

LW: Yes, I think so. Yeah. One thing I think I’m most grateful of is that I was able to watch the show after watching the first episode. Before watching episode one, I was hella nervous and worried about everything, and then when I realized actually, I’d been put in great hands, and that it was a good show, and it was enjoyable, I was able to watch it as a spectator and as an audience member.

So yeah, finishing the show, I felt a lot of the same feelings that I think other people felt finishing it. I had a slightly different layer in that when I watched particular moments, I remembered how I felt doing it. When I saw the scene at the train station in episode five, I still remember that feeling, and so I did watch it less as a spectator and more as just remembering, those feelings kind of came back to me. I think it is not always that you get to watch yourself, and watch something that you’re in, and be objective and just watch it as an audience member, so I was grateful for that.

TD: Coming off two major projects, from The White Lotus now to One Day, is there any specific kind of story that you’re wanting to tell next?

LW: That’s for the writers. I don’t know. There’s not a particular story that I have in mind that I really want to tell. I think I’m at that stage where I haven’t started writing yet, or doing anything else, and still just acting. I’m at that stage where I will get a script and hope I respond to it, and when I do, I think, “Oh yeah, I want to tell this story.” Which is actually a great thing. I’d love, one day, to be able to have hold of a story and go, “How can we tell this? How can we get this done?” I don’t know we’re there yet.

TD: Well, I hope whatever comes your way next is something that you emotionally respond to and you want to tell.

LW: Me too. Thanks, Tyler.

All episodes of One Day are available to stream on Netflix.

Leo Woodall is Emmy eligible in the category of Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for One Day.